1. The Changing Landscape of Local Business Marketing

There was a day when people picked up a copy of the Yellow Pages to find local businesses.

However, that day has past.

BRW Magazine reported that Yellow Pages’ print revenues fell by 25.6% in 2013 alone, which subsequently lead to Telstra selling 70% of it’s stake in Sensis (the owner of Yellow Pages Australia) in 2014.

National Online Retailers Association chief executive Paul Greenberg told the AFR that the sale of Sensis reflects a diminished role for the Yellow Pages in marketing.

Now two years later, it’s clear that today’s consumers head straight to their digital devices to find local businesses, and Google is their first stop.

Here’s how consumers are searching for local businesses using online search engines according to a 5,000 person study from Google:

Be where your customers are looking for you.

With close to 90% of consumers thumbing their digital devices for a range of information about local businesses, local search is now your most important marketing channel.

Optimising your online presence to rank well in Google is part technical know-how, part strategy, and doing it successfully is dependent on understanding a fast-moving landscape.

By reading this page in it’s entirety, you’ll know what it takes to beat out your competitors and get found online by more local customers.

Before we get into the strategy, let’s look at the landscape in which you compete when a potential customer opens up Google and searches for you.

Understanding Google Local Search Results Pages and Maps.

This is where your business is fighting for customers, so you better get to know the terrain intimately!

No doubt you’ve used Google and have seen their Search Results pages first-hand.

But did you know that the structure of Google’s Search Results pages change based on the search term you use?

2. How Google Ranks Local Businesses on Maps

The listings that appear within Google Maps are known as Google My Business Listings.

This is a free service from Google that allows you to create and optimise your online ‘Google Profile’ for your business.

The way this profile is optimised has a huge impact on where your business ranks on Google Maps.

Although Google doesn’t point blank disclose their algorithm for ranking businesses in Maps, the search engine optimisation industry, with it’s thousands of experts world-wide have reached some firm understandings.

Leading SEO industry community, Moz.com, conducts an annual survey of SEO experts, asking them to rate the influence of the various 50+ factors that Google uses to rank local businesses.

Here are the results of the 2015 survey:

In our experience, the following optimisation points have the greatest effect for local business ranking in Maps:

Accuracy of citations (exact use of your business name, address and phone number)

Credibility of the website where your business is listed

Volume of business citations

Frequency and recency of business citations

Accuracy of Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP) on your website

Every page contains exact NAP

Using NAP and core keywords in meta descriptions and other core SEO elements on your website

These are the core factors, and failing to optimise these can mean a lower ranking in Google:

So what does it take to rank high in Google Maps and take out one of the coveted top 3 placements (and appear at the top of Google’s Search Results page)?

Let’s look at some examples to give you more insight.

Achieving high performance in Google Maps.

When you search for a local business in Google, the Search Results page serves up the Map feature with the top 3 ranking businesses highlighted.

First let’s examine a poorly optimised industry.

Search term ‘roofer newcastle‘:

A top 3 listing is prime real estate and should be the goal for your market.

Now let’s take a look at what users are presented when they interact with the Map:

Which listing catches your eye? It’s the one with the stars, isn’t it! (Stars are awarded on Google Maps when the GMB listing has at least 5 reviews).

What you see above is a poorly optimised market, which could be easily dominated with correct optimisation and a review strategy to get regular positive reviews.

Now let’s compare these results with an optimised, more competitive market.

We look to the US for comparison, because they are approximately 12-18 months ahead of the Australian market in terms of digital market sophistication (and can be referenced as a sign of things to come).

Search term ‘roofer dallas‘:

Notice the intense competition and abundance of reviews among the top results? The number of reviews a listing has are shown in brackets (). Roofing Giant has 14 reviews with an average rating of 4.7.

Now let’s check out the Map view when users click through to learn more:

Top rankings go to businesses with well optimised GMB listings.

Although not all of the optimisation factors listed above are visible to the naked eye, it’s hard to argue the importance of reviews in your local search strategy.

They not only play a key factor in where your business ranks, but can be enormously influential on whether a potential customer chooses your business or the competition.